Enabling SQL Server backup compression

With Data Protection for SQL Server, you can compress SQL Server backups. Compression reduces traffic and storage requirements. SQL Server backup compression is generally faster and more effective than using Tivoli® Storage Manager compression.

About this task

  • You can run SQL Server backup compression only with legacy backups on SQL Server.
  • For SQL Server, you can run backup compression only on Enterprise Edition.
  • For SQL Server 2008 R2 and later versions, you can run backup compression on Standard, Enterprise, and Datacenter editions. Beginning with SQL Server 2008, any edition can restore a compressed backup.

Procedure

Use either Microsoft Management Console (MMC) or the command line to enable SQL Server backup compression:
  • From the General properties page in MMC, specify the SQL Server native backup compression option. After you have set this option, the SQL Workload column on the Recover tab shows the SQL compression status for legacy backups.
  • From the command line, add this statement to the SQL configuration file (tdpsql.cfg). Edit the file and issue this command: 
    SQLCOMPression Yes | No
    The default value is No.